I am a researcher studying diseases. You have no idea how many mice get killed without generating any data. There’s a rule in place whenever you want to work with animals that you need to plan ahead and only use as few animals as you need to get the data that you’re looking for. But things in research basically never happen according to plan. It could be due to a variety of factors: unexpected failures, overlooked factors, technical errors, or just simple negligence when performing an experiment. A lot of data and samples obtained from killed mice are discarded for one or more of the above reasons.
I get that mouse experiments are important to prove that our findings can translate to actual living animals, but I personally will not touch a mouse because, frankly, the “useful data per mouse” ratio is way too low for me to justify using mice.
While you didn’t get the data you were looking for, at least in many of those cases you mentioned you did identify a flaw or failure and learned how to design an experiment that does.
I wouldn’t consider those mice as dieing without teaching you something. It might be a failed experiment, but you learned something.
Good question. You may be surprised to hear that my stance isn’t that uncommon in research. If I recall correctly, somewhere around 50% of researchers personally will not use mice in their experiments. In these cases, we would either use a lower lifeform (fish or fruit flies), or use immortalized cells. Immortalized cells are aggressive cancer cells that happen to retain some of their cell properties. For instance, immortalized lung cells tend to act somewhat like actual lung cells. It’s not a perfect model, since you’re experimenting on cancer cells instead of actual cells, but the ease and low cost of growing and using them makes them extremely valuable for a lot of grindwork experiments, where you just need to burn through tons of different hypotheses quickly.
For me, I prefer to use immortalized cells. It works out for me anyways, since I prefer to focus on the mechanism of disease (which tends to be easier on immortalized cells) rather than practical effects of disease (which tends to require animals).
Modern medicine did not even exist before WW2. Literally everything we know is thanks to this one event. If you need just one example - antibiotics. And no, they were not invented by Nazis in their camps :) But they were tested on real people. Who died. From testing.
I am a researcher studying diseases. You have no idea how many mice get killed without generating any data. There’s a rule in place whenever you want to work with animals that you need to plan ahead and only use as few animals as you need to get the data that you’re looking for. But things in research basically never happen according to plan. It could be due to a variety of factors: unexpected failures, overlooked factors, technical errors, or just simple negligence when performing an experiment. A lot of data and samples obtained from killed mice are discarded for one or more of the above reasons.
I get that mouse experiments are important to prove that our findings can translate to actual living animals, but I personally will not touch a mouse because, frankly, the “useful data per mouse” ratio is way too low for me to justify using mice.
While you didn’t get the data you were looking for, at least in many of those cases you mentioned you did identify a flaw or failure and learned how to design an experiment that does.
I wouldn’t consider those mice as dieing without teaching you something. It might be a failed experiment, but you learned something.
Are there any alternatives you work with, or do you abstain completely from those kinds of experiments?
Good question. You may be surprised to hear that my stance isn’t that uncommon in research. If I recall correctly, somewhere around 50% of researchers personally will not use mice in their experiments. In these cases, we would either use a lower lifeform (fish or fruit flies), or use immortalized cells. Immortalized cells are aggressive cancer cells that happen to retain some of their cell properties. For instance, immortalized lung cells tend to act somewhat like actual lung cells. It’s not a perfect model, since you’re experimenting on cancer cells instead of actual cells, but the ease and low cost of growing and using them makes them extremely valuable for a lot of grindwork experiments, where you just need to burn through tons of different hypotheses quickly.
For me, I prefer to use immortalized cells. It works out for me anyways, since I prefer to focus on the mechanism of disease (which tends to be easier on immortalized cells) rather than practical effects of disease (which tends to require animals).
That’s very informative! Thank you!
Imagine if we were doing this to our own species.
We did during WW2 and that pushed medicine further in just a few years than thousands of years of medical history before that.
Can you give an example of how medicine was actually advanced? Cause I’ve only heard that claim made by white supremacists.
Modern medicine did not even exist before WW2. Literally everything we know is thanks to this one event. If you need just one example - antibiotics. And no, they were not invented by Nazis in their camps :) But they were tested on real people. Who died. From testing.
No one denies that wars bring medical advancements. What is questionable is the claim that Nazi experimentation advanced medical science.
Where did I mention Nazis? Where did you get them from?
Yeah, I don’t think it was consensual